Opening to Iran: Houston academic and medical leaders are part of a growing dialogue between U.S. and Iranian citizens

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Sunday, November 16, 2008

With a new administration set to take office in January committed to expanded diplomatic contacts with longtime U.S. adversaries, American private citizens are already laying the groundwork with visits to counterparts in Iran.

Rice University President David Leebron and University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center President Dr. John Mendelsohn are among those heading to Tehran and other stops in the country President Bush included in his "Axis of Evil."

Rice's Leebron likens the current stream of American visitors to Iran to the delegations that preceded the diplomatic thaw between China and the U.S. in the 1970s.

According to the Rice president, "Academic institutions create the possibility for continued understanding and communication. If you look at what was going on when we had no relations with China for all those years there were people going back and forth and studying China."

Leebron flew out of Houston Friday for a four-day stay in Iran, where he will visit Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, the country's top engineering school. The initiative is sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

Dr. Mendelsohn's itinerary will focus on medical facilities, particularly those engaged in cancer research. He is hopeful that the continuing exchanges between U.S. and Iranian professionals will create an environment for better relations between governments.

"This may contribute to working together on multiple problems in this world," he comments, "instead of just focusing on the one or two problems we seem to be focusing on now."

There is much potential common ground between Houstonians and Iranians, given a large Persian community here as well as complementary medical and energy complexes. We wish our local emissaries well as they work to create the conditions that may lead to an eventual normalization of U.S.-Iran relations.